Time in a Bottle

One of my favorite Jim Croce songs states, “If I could make days last forever. If words could make wishes come true, I’d save every day like a treasure and then-again-I would spend them with you.”

It is a blessing, in life, to have someone you feel this way about. In good and bad times, to realize you wouldn’t give up any days spent with them, but merely try to change the way some may have been miss spent.

Sometimes a day begins on a less than brilliant note but ends spectacularly. Those days are especially nice because I love surprises!

The #Free48 started out with a Friday fun afternoon at a new venue near the house. We thought #Baddaddysburgerbar was pretty cool, from the Badass Margaritas (of which they only allow 2 per person) to the wide variety of freshly styled burgers and hand cut fries. So good! The homemade chips were crispy and not greasy. We will definitely go back. There’s a whole menu to try!

(Touch any photo for the description)

Hubby chose Texas toast for his burger. And hand cut fries. The best I’ve had in years.

This Bad Daddy burger totally rocked the bacon. Two kinds! Smoked and jalapeno

Then there was Saturday…low key, projects, a bit of housework and cooking a weekend meal.

I just had to work on jewelry projectsBraised Pork chops, baked sweet potato, peas and Olive Oil Muffins.These muffins are so good! I found the recipe from David Lebovitz’s blog awhile back and saved the link. I finally dug in and gave it a whirl. Can you smell the orange?

Sunday promised to be a beautiful day and we headed up to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to a small German influenced town called Helen. Here comes the disappointment moments….it was less than even underwhelming, mostly due to a sense of apathy among the vendors there. It seemed as though we had stepped back in time, but it was frozen somewhere in the 70’s along with all of their merchandise and venues. The buildings are quaint and stylish, and there is a cute little park as well; but it took us approximately 45 minutes to walk around and fear we had made the two hour drive for naught. Thankfully, we had to drive to the other side of town when we first arrived, making sure we parked in the best spot, and spotted a state and national park sign worthy of a second look.

We did stop in an ‘authentic’ German restaurant/bakery where we snagged a cream puff. What can I say? I have certainly made tastier treats. The pastry was dry and the cream was only whipped cream-and unsweetened at that. So disppointing.

Authentic German stylingEven a windmill!This little waterfall was in the patkWe always enjoy a good pastry. Too bad it was mediocre.

So, quick as that, we headed to the far end of town and followed the brown park signs to Unicoi State Park and Anna Ruby Falls National Park. Hubby has a lifetime pass to all national parks so we ended up getting in totally free! Yippee!!

Talk about worth the wait. It was about a mile walk uphill to the falls and the view along the way was beautiful, cascading water at every turn. I knew the moment I saw this beauty that we were where we should be.

I so wish I could live here. One of the best things was the way the air got cooler the higher we walked. At one point it felt like a blast of air conditioning wafted down the hillside.

I loved these huge rock formations and hidden passageways.

Then we reached the top! It was so lovely. We have seen larger falls but this place has its own special charm.

The view was breathtakingIf only I could stay…That smile is genuine. Me and water and the woods make a happy trio!

Reluctantly, we headed back down the hill and made our way to the parking lot.

Our day was exhilarating. From expectant to disillusioned to thrilled.

Yeah, when people disappoint, go to the woods. That sounds like a quote from Thoreau, doesn’t it? lol! Whoever is in charge of that Helen town is not running it right. Unhappiness all around. Wonder what the civic depression is all about?

Thanks Mariann. We did find out later the Shrimers had been in town the day before and could account for some of the apathy but the defunct feeling was a slow build I am certain. Thoreau would have driven straight through and taken the trail up to the falls. 😉

Thank goodness for the park to make life good again and I can see that the food and drink part of the trip was mostly delicious. Those falls are beautiful and more than make up for a mediocre cream puff , at least in my estimation.

Oh! You reminded me of something I forgot. I’ve always loved Croce. The little house we lived in in Costa Rica was built ny the man who leased it to us. He said Croce lived there one Summer during the 70’s. I was so inspired by that. 😊

An imp? Haha! I’ll take it. Yes, indeed a good subject for a paining. I left a link for the muffins recipe. 😉
I ate that burger slowly, one bite at a time. That left time for my whiskey drink AND a beer. Haha. Thanks Ginger.

Well, it was a commonality and we stood united against the abuse of good food ingredients. 😉 We got rebellious when the ‘in charge’ floor manager lady came outside with the cashier where the patio was nearly empty and they had a mini discussion. As they headed back inside she shoved one of the plastic patio style chairs back under the plastic table and said loudly that she wished these people would push the chairs under the table when they leave. We felt badly for her disgust over something so trivial so we left our box on the table so she would have something real to complain about-and a way to pass the afternoon. Color me bad. 😏